Idiotic Idioms.

I'm trying to teach my students, "cool, casual English" so they don't sound like robots anymore but I think it is back-firing.

Recently I taught them, "Chill out," as a synonym for, "relax" or their favorite saying, "take it easy." Well this is transpiring into a whole slew of accidentally rude students.

Today I got a text from a student, "Jessica, Chill out. I will buy the tickets for you, you have a rest." My immediate reaction was, "why do I have to chill out?!" Then I realized that I taught the student that phrase the week before and she was just using it oddly.

Also, in a conversation with the same student today while on a walk around the downtown area where I teach this is what our talk sounded like:

me: I'm really hungry, are you?

her: Oh yes. Let's grab some bite. There is a store up the street.

me: haha, Ok.

her: Dinner will soon be around a corner. Maybe we can wait until that time.

me: Ok, sounds good to me. I have to catch the bus home soon anyway.

her: Chill out.

ahhhhhh hifhriejvoidjb. Could you find the idioms "grab a bite," "around the corner," and "chill out."

Oh well, at least we are all trying? Maybe? Sometimes I feel like ESL teaching in a foreign country is a lost cause because they are not in an environment for using the language and only get their cues from me once a week for how to use phrases and tones. It's a challenge I've been facing for over a year and I still have no idea how to get them to sound natural. I guess that's what experience is for. And patience. lots and lots of patience.

I love my job. But I have no idea what I am doing.